The Industrial Revolution Agricultural Revolution Why did it start in England? The Growth of the Cottage Industry The Industrial Revolution

Agricultural Revolution 15th and 18th Century Farming - 1st Picture: Peasants ranking and cutting hay in the 15th Century 2nd Picture: Farming Methods in Early 18th Century Very little change Common land still unenclosed and outside the village in the 18th century Economy of Europe was agrarian Used the three-field system: 1/3 of the land left idle to restore fertility

The Open-field System Cooperative plowing Conserved the quality of land Balanced distribution of good land Farmers were part of a “team” Gleaning The Open-field System: - England was divided into a number of fields which surrounded a village - 1/3 left fallow - further divided into rectangular sections called furlongs -Furlongs were divided into narrow 1 acre strips - Certain pasture and forest were set aside as common land

Enclosure Before AFTER Each landowner received a single piece of property No common lands

Large Land Owners (Benefited) Had the political strength to pass the enclosure law Owned large unified farms under this system Farming was more efficient Didn’t need consent of the village to experiment with new crop methods

Small Farmers Forced off Their Land Had to pay for : Required fencing A team of oxen Could no longer glean or gather wood Often had to sell plots to large landowners: Forced to Rent or Work for someone else Increasing the # of men looking for work

The Seed Drill (1700) Planted seed in neat rows Improved germination by making furrow, dropping seed into them, and covering them Reduced amount of seed used in planting

Additional Machines Horse-drawn cultivator – Jethro Tull Cast-iron plow (1797) – American Charles Newbold Reaper – Englishman Joseph Boyce (1799) and American Cyrus McCormic (1834) Self-cleaning steel plow – John Deere(1837) Thresher – separated grain from stalk Harvester – cut and bind grain Combine - cut, thresh, and sack grain Tractor – pulled equipment through the field Corn planter Potato digger Electric milker Cotton picker

Scientific Agriculture Crop Rotation English gentleman farmer Viscount Charles “Turnip” Townsend Alternating grain crops: wheat and barley, with soil enriching crops: turnips and clovers. No longer had to leave land fallow Scientific Breeding 1725-1795 Selective breeding of animals Produced more and better animals Produced more milk and meat Leciestershire breed of sheep Increased weight of marketed cattle

Selective Breeding? Some farmers such as Robert Bakewell and the Culley brothers concentrated on selective breeding. This meant only allowing the fittest and strongest of their cattle, sheep, pigs and horses to mate. You can tell how successful they were: In 1710 the average weight for cattle was 168 (370 lbs) Kg by 1795 - it was 363 (805 lbs) Kg Today – 1600 lbs Find pictures of the animals they bred – do they look healthy by today’s standards, what does it tell us about how they thought of their achievements that they had portraits painted.

Effects The number of farmers, in proportion to total population, decreased sharply Many farmers moved to the cities The population of cities increased rapidly Farmers found their work less difficult because machines performed the back breaking labor Farming changed from a self-sufficient way of life to big business Agricultural production increased Cost of foodstuffs dropped Increased production of food resulted in part, in a rapid growth of population Large farms, using machines and scientific methods, began to dominate agriculture Number of small farms began to decline